I did indeed grab an earlier night and hopefully will see the benefits of it over the next three days which are going to be pretty busy. So after dinner I retired to the cabin while the ladies went off in search of some retail therapy, I must have been tired as I never heard them come in later (and it had absolutely nothing to do with the wine consumption…..)
Now we are further north the evenings are noticeably lighter and considering we are two hours ahead of UK time my body clock is still waking me at my usual time, how does that work?
It was my turn to fetch the coffee this morning so at 8:00 I climbed the stairs to the Oceanview Café and collected two mugs but also the cardboard cups too. The reason for this is the cardboard ones hold a mug and a half so if you fill it up then sit it in the proper mug it also makes it easier to carry. All we then do is decant it into the mugs when we get back to the cabin. We do occasionally use room service but sometimes you don’t want the intrusion that early in the morning and it’s not really too much hassle to go and get your own.
The pilot arrived onboard just before 9:00 as we made our way into the port of Tallinn. Wanting to avoid the bun fight in the buffet this morning we ate our breakfast in the Tuscan Grille where as Elite status we can have a continental breakfast between 8:00 & 10:00. It was nice and quiet and far more civilised than what I imagine was going on in the Oceanview Cafe.
Clearance to go ashore was really quick today and we were ashore before 10:20 and making our way to the shuttle bus ($10 each return), under normal circumstances we would have walked but as we have less sprightly companions we decided the bus was the best solution.
From where the bus dropped us off we made our way to the Town Hall Square before climbing the slight incline up to the Alexander Nevski orthodox cathedral.
From there we partially walked back down to the square where we stopped for some liquid refreshments at Olde Hansa which is a medieval restaurant and bar just off the square.
From there we made our way back to Pikk Street and carried on down the hill before eventually meandering back to the shuttle bus stop. It was all aboard at 4:30 but we were back for 3:00 and immediately went for a quick bite to eat in the buffet. It is yet another short stop for Celebrity and had there been just the two of us we would have covered more ground in the 6½ hours available. Quite a bit is achievable but it would be nice not to have to keep one eye on the clock.
We like Tallinn a lot and found the place really picturesque and the people extremely friendly. We will have to come back for another visit some day.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with our feet up and mentally preparing for the next two days which will be in St. Petersburg.